Our Birth Story

Over the last several months I have been feeling pretty lethargic and somber. J.T. has been gone and I have been trying to keep Troy and Kay alive, educated, and entertained, the house clean, and keep up on the job front. I felt rundown and at times overwhelmed and sorry for myself. The last month or so has been rough. My stomach has been giving me major problems. I had convinced myself that I had cysts or tumors from miscarriage complications. Even had KC on board! I called my OB's office and on Christmas Eve went in for an internal ultrasound. All the emotions of being in that room and having someone tell me there was no heartbeat came flooding back and I knew that more bad news was to come. My cycle had not returned and I could feel lumps. The sonographer asked me if I knew I was EH HEM…pregnant! I said NO, in a state of panic thinking you better order up a DNA test because of course when someone tells you that you are pregnant you of course assume it happened the day before right ;) She then switches to the ultrasound on my stomach and says  "well you are 16 weeks along" um I am sorry 16 weeks-there was more shock then relief. I was happy and then she says well " I know I have thrown a lot at you but there are TWO in there!" Ok lady, shut up! The tears flowed as I weeped "I am sorry I came in here expecting you to tell me I had cysts. That my child rearing days were over that I had to prepare for surgery." I mean I just had a miscarriage on 8/21 and he deployed 9/11!!! That is 21 days. Is this even possible???  Well yes dumby, when you have sex you can get pregnant. She didn't say that I did haha. I sat in the hall waiting to see Dr. Horvath. I was smiling, panicking, knowing this was prayer and blessings. I ran to the waiting room and got KC and Troy and when I closed the door I showed KC the folder and the picture of two heads. Her reaction was very smilier to mine. Ugly tears, shock, smiling, uncomfortable laughing! :) I am so blessed by her. She loves so hard and gives up so much all for her love for our family. It's not reasonable and I get my hand batted away a lot. How can I ever repay her for who she is and what she does?

Dr. Horvath sits down and says. Ok well we need to speak about your ultrasound. Pursed lips ensue by both KC and I.  As KC said couldn't you have just dropped the mic and been like Merry Christmas you're having twins??? But, no she had to steal the show and a little thunder. She said the sonographer saw three babies on the ultrasound but only two heartbeats. Wait what? I had triplets No, no this baby never formed into an actual fetus there is no heart and no head only a body, legs and blood flow. OK, cool. I got twins. I am happy. She sends us over to the Women's Hospital to have further scans done.Wundebar. My heart is beating out of my chest but they needed to take a closer look. We literally hop in the car and head straight over. Mom of the year right here Troy had Doritos' and  Sour Patch Kids for lunch AND some sugary juice whaaaaaat. What's that you hear? Silence. A happy baby! For about 45 min Troy watches Paw Patrol while Nicole scans me to figure out the ultimate alogorythim. How many sacs, placentas, membranes, and umbilical cords? Who is sharing what with who.

Well I am having identical twin girls!!! They have two separate sacs YAY, but share a placenta, not so YAY!! Baby A and Baby B which of you is sharing a sac with Baby C( the a-cardiac abnormality/mass)? Well, Lauren said Dr. Whitecar this is an extremely unusual pregnancy with a HUGE smile on his face. You know when a chef finally gets a ticket with something other than the house specialties yea well this was the excitement he was showing but for me extreme and unusual was not what I wanted to hear! Carolina Medical Center here I come because Baby C has got to go, not out of my stomach but it has got to be cauterized and remain until delivery. It is not healthily that it is shunting blood with either baby A or B(TBD). That is valuable nutrients and strength and bloodflow that the healthy twins will need.

Five grueling and anxious days later I arrive in Charlotte with KC and Troy in tow. More ultrasounds are up on the deck. I laid for nearly 2.5 hours while they searched for cords and separating membranes. Dr Stepehnson will be my specialist and she did the 3rd and final scan. Surgery is necessary and to her immediate while some other opinions differ. She feels it's better to tackle this now and deal with what repercussions may come(HOPEFULLY NONE) before they are at the crucial 24 week age.  4 different surgery options but we have decided to go with Microwave Antenna Ablasion. The heat is focused and not scattered. The mass will be destroyed by the microwaves and bloodflow will prayerfully be restored to normal, the babies will not show any signs of distress and remain healthy.

My biggest risks are 1) Preterm labor and 2) TTS( Twin to Twin Transfusion) this is basically like if 1 kid in your house gets sick so do all the rest of you. Remember when I said the girls shared a placenta. The umbilical cords all connect to the placenta so if 1 gets sick they both risk getting sick or one could get more than the other.

Questions you may have:

1) How did J.T. react to the news of me being pregnant?  Well after staring at the screen for about 6 seconds with a straight face he finally and only said "How" :) After he processed all the above information we have determined our Honda Accord will not work for four kids and that he is ecstatic!

2) When is the surgery? Dr Stephenson will have to coordinate with another Dr. who is a liver oncologist. It'll be the week of the 12th but not sure of an exact date. The machine they are using is used on patients with liver problems but Dr. Stephenson being the baller she is determined it could be used on fetuses if necessary.  These two are the only surgeons in the world to have performed this surgery together. 12 times with a 100% success rate. The procedure is the easy part, approximately 3min. The risks of the surgery are the scary and hard part.

3) What is your condition called? A term you can look up is: TRAP Sequence in Triplets. It's very rare so not a lot of articles come up.

3) What can I do to help? Aside from prayer nothing at the moment unless you so desire. Unless you can supply us with a white Ford Flex ;)

I am feeling fine. Pregnant HA but fine. I am a nervous and anxious wreck but remain hopeful that the girls will be OK! My mom is looking to take off work and all my wonderful friends and family have stepped up and offered to especially help with Troy as I will be needing to be taking it easy for 1-2 weeks to keep myself and the girls' blood pressure down and as we know toddlers don't help with that no matter how cute they are! ;)


Cheers, LB

Update: Surgery Scheduled for Wednesday January 14th